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At Foundermade We Threw Perfection Out The Window

The Foundermade Wellness 2017 event took place Friday, February 3 at Spring Studios in TriBeCa.

Foundermade Wellness 2017 was hosted at the gorgeous Spring Studios in TriBeCa. The event brings together startups with influencers, mentors, and investors. As a spunky startup this was the place for us to be! The speakers were inspiring, made some really awesome connections, and the other exhibitors were warm, fun, and edgy all at the same time. I mean, that’s what you get when you’re in a room full of innovators who by definition aren’t exactly toeing the line.

Mother Dirt President, Jasmina Aganovic, sat on the Innovations in Wellness panel said something that really summed up the theme of the day, “Perfection is out. Balance is in.” For new companies who are changing the way we take care of ourselves, it really was a powerful and comforting statement.

Here are 5 things that highlighted supported this way of thinking at Foundermade:

1. The Keynote Address

The keynote speaker was Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO of Flywheel. And what a talk! The subject was failure, which at first may sound odd, but if you’ve worked for a startup, you know it’s completely appropriate and a necessary topic to cover.

I sat there with a big smile on my face, listening to this woman speak with gusto about being fired twice in 2 years. And how without those experiences she never would have become the CEO that she is today. It’s always inspiring and encouraging to hear very successful people speak frankly and humbly about their foibles and fumbles. We all know that’s where the greatest growth comes from, but for many of us they’re too cringeworthy to talk about so publicly. Thank you for owning it, and reminding us that we’re all human and capable of great things.

Flosstime is this funky new invention that helps those who fail at flossing to actually succeed at flossing. It’s an automatic floss dispenser that you stick to your bathroom mirror, and it sense when you walk into the bathroom and dispenses just enough floss for you to go to town on your gums. And it kinda shames you when you ignore it by displaying a frowny face.

Mother Dirt’s booth was next to Flosstime’s and their founder Michael Evans asked every person who approached his booth, “Do you ever forget to floss?” and having overheard everything, I can tell you 90% of the attendees at Foundermade need Flosstime. So it’s no surprise that he won the $5K price in the Foundermade Challenge! Congrats Michael!

Want to grow a huge garden in the city but can’t find any vacant land and rich soil? Go underground! That’s what Lowline is doing.

Lowline is looking to create the largest underground park. They are using unique solar technology to bring necessary UV light underground to grow all kinds of greenery. Right now they have their 10,000 square foot test labin an abandoned market on the Lower East Side. Their final park will be 60,000 square feet and is set to be open to the public in 2021.

Their goal is to takeover the one-acre former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal, which has been neglected for about 60 years now, and expand to other areas from there. Check out their website to catch a glimpse of their vision, and perhaps even stop by for some of their weekend community programming It’s truly remarkable.

One of the best things about working the trade show circuit is that the faces become familiar, and you start making friends with the other exhibitors you see at shows. This is just a special shout out to our friends at Vital Proteins who were gracious enough to lend us their box cutter because...errr…ahhh...we packed our box cutter in a box and couldn’t open the box without a box cutter.

Thankfully they were well prepared, and helped a sister out. And it may not seem like that big of a deal, but when you’re under a time crunch to get your booth set up and you’ve taped your boxes in a way that they would survive the apocalypse, you’re pretty desperate for some help. They also graciously took part in an Instagram Story with us, which I always personally appreciate because if you’re like me, you’re not always excited about having yourself on video. ;-)

As a yoga instructor, this is something I find truly fascinating. This is wearable technology that they describe as “...the unique combination of hardware, software, and apparel design.” Its purpose is to give haptic signals to your body to guide your positioning and alignment, in your yoga practice.

Why is this important? If you’ve ever been to a yoga class you know they can get crowded. And no matter how many student there are, there is only one teacher, and depending on the size of the class, there may or may not be an assistant or two. But usually it’s a room full of people all following the verbal queues of one person who literally cannot check everyone’s individual alignment for each posture.

Wearable X, specifically the Nadi X tights empower you to strengthen your practice and get that 1-on-1 attention you need for those particularly tricky postures. I am personally very excited about this because while I know what my hips should be doing, I’m not always sure if they’re doing it. To have something that would allow me to self-adjust during a class would be amazing. I think they’re onto something here!

The Foundermade Wellness 2017 event was a great way to start off the year. Many of us, whether it’s intentional or not, make New Year’s resolutions to live healthier lives. And yes, we all want to eat better, and exercise more, and be more mindful, and this gathering was really inspiring in giving us tools to help us do that.

But even more than that was the reminder that despite our best efforts, things won’t always go the way we planned, or hoped. There were several little things sprinkled throughout this event that reminded me of how that’s where the magic happens...that sticky, often awkward magic that turns into something positive and beautifully unexpected. :-)